Marquette Women’s Soccer Hands UWM Its First Loss in 28 Games

The Marquette Golden Eagles did the unexpected and shocked Milwaukee Panthers 1-0 last night.

No, really! This happened!

This Panthers women’s soccer squad was riding a 27 game unbeaten streak and hadn’t lost in the regular season since September of 2016. NEARLY TWO YEARS! That’s WILD. Marquette grabs its second win and moves to 2-6-1 on the year.

Marquette hasn’t beaten UWM since 2013. So much has changed since then. I was still in high school, Obama was still the Prez, and dabbing wasn’t a thing yet...good times. However, because of MU’s wins earlier in the series they now hold the all-time advantage at 10-9-8. Marquette has played UWM 27 times which is the most out of any other team so you could say they are fierce rivals.

Since we go to/support a Jesuit Catholic school, reflection is something that’s highly encouraged. I firmly believe in the practice and think head coach Markus Roeders took advantage of his recent time off to do some deep soul searching. Remember: He was suspended for the game against BYU. In that time, he must of had a revelation. Marquette came to play Monday night and for one game looked like a dangerous team that could make noise in the Big East. Man, I wish I could have been a fly on the wall in the locker room and heard what Roeders told his team pregame. Must have been EPIC because they looked like an entirely new team compared to last Saturday...just two days later.

You might be asking yourself: How in the world did they pull it off? For starters, they outshot the Panthers 14-12 and got off to a hot start with a 6-3 advantage at halftime. It’s MU’s first game where they’ve outshot their opponent all season. And look at the result! It’s not rocket science people. Roeders tinkered a bit with the starting lineup giving senior Heather Handwork a go at forward for her first start in over a year and fellow senior Allison Jacobson replacing Ryley Bugay at center back. That may have done something to get the team to play better? Sometimes soccer is decided by how you assemble the pieces you have, and some fits are better than others.

What definitely did make a difference was Maddy Henry in net (who knew?). She made a massive penalty stop in the 80th minute to essentially secure the 1-0 victory. Unbelievable. She really can do it all. Henry finished with six saves on the night. Let’s relive that incredible save for those of us that may have missed the game or just want to watch it over and over again:

Show me a better PK stop and I’ll buy you a beer. My goodness, what a beauty.

Just as important was sophomore Bri Jaeger’s goal in the 73rd minute to take the one goal lead. It was wonderfully set up by freshmen Katrina Wetherell’s set piece from the left sideline. She hit a lofted ball all the way to the back post where Jaeger rose above her defender and headed it past goalkeeper Elaina LaMacchia. This clip can show it a lot better than I can describe it in words:

I don’t know where this team is going this year but I can enjoy the fact that we ended the 12th longest unbeaten streak in NCAA history. Well done all around. They have a positive result to build on heading into their weekend match against #23 Butler that will kickoff Big East play. But let’s not think about that. For now, enjoy what Bri Jaeger, Maddy Henry, and coach Roeders said after the game:

Henry used the words stoked, sick, and stud to describe Jaeger’s performance in this game. Words I haven’t heard since the turn of the century. It’s fair to say she was pretty psyched about the victory. I am too. I haven’t been this happy in a long time.